Whirlpool of Imagination

Two Days!

I have to say that the past few days have been pretty much a dud in the studio. While I don't get extended periods of time down there, I sneak moments when I can. The fact that everything can stay out is a beautiful thing when I only have a few minutes to spare. I had an idea for this card and for two days I've struggled with it. It didn't end up what I envisioned but sometimes I just need to move on or I really get bogged down with something that doesn't work.

The funny thing is that I no longer remember what I was trying to do!! All I know is I wanted to do something with a blue and brown scheme - this thing has traveled miles since I started with that premise.The butterfly is from Paper Trey Ink and the background swirl is from TAC (which I believe is being retired this year - did you see all the backgrounds they are retiring?????)

Poor Conor is sick - I think its allergies but the poor kid is sniffling and snuffling like you wouldn't believe. Remarkably he's in pretty good spirits for a kid that can't breathe! I really need to get him checked out so I can have a plan on dealing with this - I'm big on having plans and being prepared.

Meg had her first dance last night - it was a Father Daughter dance and she looked soooo cute all dressed up with daddy. Too bad I can't freeze her at five years old!

I'm done in for tonight - exhaustion has set in. I'm off to relax - night.

Aloha!

I'm working on my flood swaps again for Stamp Shack. I seem to constantly run a week behind but I tell myself that just spreads them out a bit!! I was paging through a magazine which is what inspired today's card.

The patterned paper is some new Basic Grey I got which I haven't cut into yet but I am loving this pretty paper!

The card base is stamped with a canvas background from TAC and the sentiment is from Green Grass Stamps.

I love this ribbon too! I got it from Ribbons and Bows Oh My. I'm never sure how to use really patterned paper (by that I mean beyond my usual stripes) but I like how this turned out. I may just have to get adventurous with more patterned paper!

In My Thoughts

I have had these flowers from Stampin Up for ages now and they have not seen ink yet. I was inspired to create a card with a line of flowers today so I thought I'd ink these up.

The flowers are colored with Dee Gruenig markers - this is probably my most favorite way to do I stamp flowers - makes it so easy to combine colors. I looked high and low for an inkpad that would match but after trying 5 different purples (which leads to the thought that I have WAY too many ink pads!), I decided to just use the marker again and ink up the sentiment that way. The sentiment is from TAC. The card was looking a little bare so I used a blo pen to add a bit of background color. The problem with that is that there are only a few colors in the pen set. It leads me to the question of whether I need the color spritzer from Stampin Up. I don't have any SU markers - I just can't buy more when I have a ton others - would the spritzer work with other brand markers??? Anybody know???

Baby Boy Frame

I got my camera out tonight so I could take a picture of the frame I was talking about yesterday. I still haven't mastered the art of photographing my stuff (I usually scan all my cards) so the colors are a bit off but that's okay.

The frame is painted a deeper blue than the picture shows. Its actually pretty close to the card base color from yesterdays card. The "baby" word is from CTMH and the "boy" word is from Spunky Stamps. The red strip is actually stamped polka dotted to look like ribbon (stamp from Technique Tuesday) and the little race car is from a bunch of little shapes I picked up at Michael's. I had originally picked them up with the idea of using them on frames but then forgot I had them. So now I plan on pulling them out and see what I can do with them. I'd like to bring frames to my craft fair in June so I have a fair amount I want to make. You may see more in the future.